How Computers Work: The Evolution of Technology, 10th Edition

helpful in understanding computers

Love this book. Bought a prior release back in the 90's when I first got into computers. It was SOOOO helpful and written so well. The graphics are perfect. I bought this version for my son. He kept professing how he knew all about computers, when actually, he is just an advanced user. I told him it was like being a racecar driver but not knowing how the car is put together. I am having him read this book over the summer and he is devouring it and having intelligent computer discussions with me. So happy for this book.

Good book on how computers are built and process data. This book was an excellent read and unbelievable price!

Love the detail

Years ago I started out reading Mr White's previous How Computers Work books and his approach and illustrations allow me to understand what is going on inside the machine. This book and his original book sit on my reference shelf front and center. With all the technology going on in our everyday lives I find a need to understand how things work will help me be a smarter consumer. If my son asks how a tv gets its picture or what type of video card is best or how are spinning hard drives different from solid state drives, etc. I can answer his questions. I picture Mr White's illustrations which really enable me to recall and repeat a concept. Don't be intimidated by the book. You don't have to read it front to back. You can read it section by section or concept by concept.

I thought this was a great book that tough the basics. Granted, some of the material went over my head. I maintained a good understanding.

I bought my grandson, a college freshman majoring in informatics, this book as a gift: How Computers Work (10th Ed.) by Ron White, First Printing, Dec. 2014. I pre-ordered it from Amazon back in November, 2014, and it did arrive in time for the holidays. While I applaud the effort and book overall, having owned several editions in the past, there are fundamental errors early in this first printing that could erode reader confidence, since the mistakes are so basic. I imagine this edition was rushed to press prior to the holiday season, and frankly, it shows. Now I must explain to my grandson the mistakes, and apologize. Here's just a sample of what I've found so far in Part 1: 1. A table is not a computer, but a tablet such as an iPad is: Page 5, last paragraph: "--mainframe, desktop, table, digital music player, ... " ??? 2. P. 13, image 3, 4th sentence is not a sentence and doesn't help the explanation: "Resistance is how the material which the electricity is flowing." ??? 3. P. 15, image 5. The image of the rheostat is confusing and makes the opposite point it should. The way it is drawn, it contradicts the text. In fact, as the knob is turned clockwise, the amount of resistance should increase, not decrease as depicted in the image. When the knob in the diagram, as drawn, is turned clockwise, there is MORE resistive wire to travel through. The current out would therefore decrease. And that's just backwards to how knobs on radios and stereos normally work. Turning clockwise will increase the current out, not decrease it. Duh? See: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+does+a+rheostat+work&espv=2&biw=731&bih=387&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SzKtVI3mOoOnyQTDz4KoBg&ved=0CDAQsAQ&dpr=1.75 4. P. 17, image of Mona Lisa is wrong, contradicts text to the left in section 6: The Mona Lisa appears in COLOR. This is NOT a half-tone image, consisting of only black and white dots. The whole example could be improved by showing a contrast between a half-tone (1-bit color) and, say, a 256-bit color image of Mona Lisa. E.g., see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone . 5. P. 36, first paragraph. Pages XXX-xxx are referred to. Where are these pages? 6. I bought the digital edition also, wondering if the same mistakes are there. Yes, they are. Furthermore, the navigation when scrolling was not working correctly in the latest version of Firefox (34.05) for the Mac (OS X 10.10.1). When I use the left navigation menu, click on Chapter 1, How Waves take the Universe on a Joy Ride, then start scrolling down, the page jumps to the beginning of the book! I can't even read it, unless I start scrolling from the beginning of the book. Come on now, this is totally unacceptable. So I tried Chrome (Version 39.0.2171.95 (64-bit)). While the navigation works, the first Interaction just came up with an empty black box with a yellow border. It just does NOT work at all (but surprisingly it does in Firefox, and I can add ducks to the waves, if I FIRST scroll from the beginning of the book to get there). 7. The interactive animation on Writing Data to RAM (and reading it) is confusing. When getting to Reading data from RAM (in the same interaction), the illustration is simply confusing. How can a capacitor send a current through a transistor that is CLOSED. The circuit is broken between the capacitor and the data line. How can current travel from the capacitor to the data line, if the switch is off? This is not logical. It must be wrong, or I'm missing something here. Overall, this is NOT a good start to the book, and makes me a doubter of the accuracy of some of the content in this first printing/web edition. I'm afraid I cannot recommend this book to others at this time with errors I've discovered in the first few dozen pages. I am not a computer novice, having started with programming in FORTRAN on mainframe computers with punched cards. I taught college students how to use computers over 4 decades. More recently, I've written interactive Web simulations, tutorials and tests that are widely used. My advice: Wait for a later printing when some of these rather basic and embarrassing errors are fixed in the 10th edition.

This book is great if you're looking for a high level understanding of how computers work. Author keeps it concise and simple. Book has a lot of pictures that are well labeled and make it easier to understand the material.

Tolles Buch, mit Infos gepacked!

This book is colourful with good knowledge and good quality pages

La facilidad con la que Ron White describe los componentes, las conexiones y los detalles, en una forma tan simple y común que se logra el entendimiento y el aprendizaje.

If you want to learn something about computer,it will help you.I bought the book for my daughter , and she did learn more from the book,she likes it.

日本語訳の方を最初に手にしました。そこからの自分で書いたレビューの冒頭をコピーします。 "中学くらいから全くの文系です。唯一生物だけは点数取れたくらいです。 ただ、社会人生活を行っていく上で、HDDといれば、Western DigitalやSeagateや東芝、コンデンサーといえば村田製作所、水晶振動子といえばエプソンや日本電波工業、など、電子部品単体シェアのうろ覚えの知識はありますが、それぞれの機能を深く理解しどうゆう働きをして全体を作っているか、まったく理解できていませんでした。基本から知りたくなり手にしました。 冒頭、いきなりワクワクします。 「梃子」「滑車」「楔」「斜面」「輪軸」「ねじ」を組み合わせて、それに馬力や水力を付け加えて、単純な作業から土木工事を行ってきた人間。そこに電気が登場します。この「電気」を人間は情報を処理するということに使い始めたのです。ここまでは物語を読んでいるようで、次の展開を知りたくてワクワクします。 次に、あらゆるものを作り上げる「波」の仕組み、「波」が情報を伝える仕組み。 そこから、電磁気へと入っていきます。" 職業柄英語でコミュニケーションすることから日英両方での語彙を備える必要があり、日本語訳本に英語で対訳を書き込んでいました。 搬送波: carrier wave, 横波:transverse wave; 縦波: longitudinal wave, 導電性: conductivity; 電気伝導体: electrical conductor 価電子: valence electron ........... あまりにも専門用語の書き込みを多く続けているうちに、原書の必要性を感じて購入しました。 日本語訳でよく判らなかった部分は、原文だとスッと容易に理解出来ました。なにぶん、日本語と英語は全く異なる言語なので、日本語で判りやすく訳すと原語のニュアンスが失われてしまうことは多々あります。 この本の秀逸なところは、いきなり、コンピュータの構造（制御装置、演算装置、入出力装置等）から入らずに、”波”から入るところです。それが後半のネットワークやインターネットに繋がって行きます。ブロードバンドでは搬送波になり、それが後半のインターネットの広がりに関わる、ハブやスイッチ、スピーカーやブリッジやゲートウェイまで容易に繋がって行きます。「パケット」とはどうゆうことなのか、初めて腹落ちして気持ちが良くなりました。この辺は、YouTubeチャンネルのcode.orgでインターネットを最初に考案したVint Cerf氏の解説を合わせて見たことで、自分の浅い知識が全く別の次元に到達した気持ちになりました。 素晴らしい本です。日本語訳もありますが、出来れば原書である本書を手に取ることをお勧めします。